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S2 ™ at a Glance: Freeware

Sizing Wizard Soft Ware v2.0

SEPARATOR DESIGN

TWO PHASE
&
THREE PHASE

A computer approach based on


Wayne D.Monnery and William Y.Svrcek's articles

By:
Ali Farrokhzad
Table of Contents

Overview .................................................................................................................................... 1
Shortcut Mode ........................................................................................................................ 2
Detailed Mode......................................................................................................................... 4
Limits & Inabilities .................................................................................................................. 4
Acknowledgment .................................................................................................................... 6
Revision History ...................................................................................................................... 7
References ............................................................................................................................... 7
A Sample Case ............................................................................................................................ 8
Input Sheet .............................................................................................................................. 9
Output Sheet ........................................................................................................................ 11
Finalization ........................................................................................................................... 14
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:
S2 provides simple macro-based Excel files which can size Two and Three Phase separators.
These files have been developed based on the well-known articles of W.D.Monnery and
W.Y.Svrcek's.

There are 2 methods to get outputs from these files:


 Shortcut
 Detailed

The advantages of each method will be explained later.

Below abbreviations have been considered for mentioned files:

 2pH: Sizing of 2 phase HORIZONTAL separators. (vapor/liquid)


 2pV: Sizing of 2 phase VERTICAL separators. (vapor/liquid)
 3pHw: Sizing of 3 phase HORIZONTAL separators with Weir. (vapor/liquid/liquid)
 3pHb: Sizing of 3 phase HORIZONTAL separators with Boot. (vapor/liquid/liquid)
 3pV: Sizing of 3 phase VERTICAL separators. (vapor/liquid/liquid)
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Shortcut Mode:
This method calculates vessel size based on minimum requirements. So it assumes some
assumption to find the optimum result.

User should only enter process parameters (holdup and surge times, vapor/liquid rates,
operating pressure, viscosities and densities of fluids and also the particle sizes in 3-phase cases)
to evaluate the drum size.

Program will set some default values to obtain minimum vessel weight. Therefore, the
Dimensions (Diameter, Length and level heights) are exact, but the total weight and nozzles size
are estimated.

These are some of the default values where are fixed in this method:

. Max. Allowable Tensile Stress for the Alloy = 17500 psi (1207 Bar)
. Joint Efficiency = 0.85
. Corrosion Allowance = 1/16 inch (1.6 mm)
. Alloy Density = 490 lb/ft3 (7850 kg/m3)

Total weight will be calculated as below:

WT = 1.1× Alloy thickness× Surface Area× Alloy density

Where Alloy thickness= Max (Head thickness, Shell thickness)


10% overhead is considered as the weight of nozzles, joints and other accessories.

User shall fill all red bordered cells. But during fill-up, some cells will be recolored to green ,

gray or pale-red , because these are depended on some other cells and by entering that

parameters, these cells will be deactivated.

After filling the essential red-bordered cells, the first estimation of vessel sizing will be shown,
but it isn't an optimum case and maybe some design constraints have not been satisfied. So by
pressing Optimize button, the best result will be recalculated by program.
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One of the design constraints is L/D that sets to be between 1.5~61. Users are able to change this
range.

Nozzle sizing are based on minimum fluid velocity.

Note: In horizontal separators, final dimension is optimum for selected default values such as
corrosion allowance. By changing default values, the solution will converge to a different
dimension as an optimum case. (Some inputs such as corrosion allowance, joint efficiency and
design pressure effect on the shell and head thickness and therefore on the final vessel weight.)

1
L/D is based on operating pressure. For details refer to Table.5 of reference 1 (Table 7 of reference 2).
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Detailed Mode:
This method is similar to shortcut, but users have more options to customize their design such
as selecting the alloy type, changing the corrosion allowance, updating design pressure and
temperature, introducing slug volume and customizing holdup volume and exact nozzle sizing
by selecting standards flanges, introduce nozzle sizing criteria, etc.

So by these options, we will have some more exact data for the vessel weight.

In addition, in this mode, user can press Show Detailed Calculation Steps.. to view internal
calculations.

Notes:
 For more information, view Help sheet of each file.
 A Reset. button considered to undo Optimized case to the first estimated data.

 There is a Reset All.. button, which undo all calculations and clear input fields to original

blank one. It's important to be informed that this action is not undo-able.

Limits and Inabilities:


1. The horizontal vessels cannot calculate pure single phase feeds. (Typically more than
99.99% vapor quality). So in these cases, assume a bit liquid volume instead of ZERO to
avoid uncertain "divided by zero" in the program.
2. These files could evaluate K factor1 for a wide pressure range as 0~5500 Pisa (379 Bara).
Also for high pressure conditions, the vapor viscosity and particle size will be asked to
evaluate theoretical K.
After v2.0 a Kalculator button has been considered to evaluate theoretical K based on
physical properties of vapor and liquid. K will be calculated according to Table 1 of Ref.1

1
Calculation of K is based on two methods: GPSA and York Demister.
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(Table 2 of Ref.2) and dose not included process modification factors where mentioned in
that tables.
3. In this version, we have not considered "Round It" button. So the output dimensions are
exact and user should round it manually as we have shown in the finalization section of
the Sample Case.
4. Optimization procedure is provided by SOLVER1. So final result is depending on solvers
algorithm. Read its conversation dialog box after optimization:

 According to Ref.2 Examples, we added a modification factor (α) for vapor


disengagement area height (Hv) in horizontal drums with high vapor load. I could not
found any reference for this factor, so I have considered it as below (in my own judge):
𝜶 = 𝟎. 𝟐 ; 𝒒 ≤ 𝟎. 𝟑𝟓𝟑
Hv=Max {D, 2 (1)} ; ft where {
𝜶 = 𝟎. 𝟖𝟓 𝒒 ; 𝒒 > 𝟎. 𝟑𝟓𝟑
q is feed quality (mass fraction of vapor in the feed)

 In v2.0 we provided a built-in macro to install Solver add-in automatically by opening


of Sω² Launcher.xlsm. If it won't work properly, please refer to Startup sheet in each
Excel file and follow instruction to install it manually.
 A movie has been provided that shows you running of a sample case step by step. Click
here to watch it.

Ali Farrokhzad
Process Department
Petrogas Jahan LTD, Co.
05 June 2016; Version 2.0; R20160605

1 Frontline Systems Inc.


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Special Thanks to:


AliMohammad Nikdel (Jahanpars Co. Vice President)
Hamid Ataei, Ehsan Amid. (Petrogas Jahan LTD, Co.)
Atieh Yaghoobi, Masoumeh Khaleghi, Mehdi Haddadi &
Reza Mansouri. (Petrogas Jahan LTD, Co. Process Department).
Aidin Rezazad (Petrogas Jahan LTD, Co. Mechanical Department).
Dr. Keikhosrow Karimi, Dr. Mohsen Nasr Esfahani &
Dr. Arjomand Mehrabani (Isfahan University of Technology; Chemical Engineering Department).

I would like to express my appreciation to:


Ivan Johansen (Developer of Graph Software)
Mr. Ali Shalbafzadeh (Isfahan University of Technology; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering).

We are looking forward to your advice: Email: Sizing.Wizard@gmail.com

Discussion & Comments:


Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sizingwizards/Version-2-0

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8243915

Find The Last Version on the website: https://sites.google.com/site/sizingwizards/what-s-new

.DONATE.-
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Revision History:
Release
Version Updated Items Note
Date
1.0 First Release. All files R20140513
Modify initial guess of vessel diameter for high load vapors.(To run solver
1.1 2pH,2pHs R20150520
in the right way)
- Modify L/D optimization range based on Operating Pressure.
- Velocity criteria effects modified in Inlet Nozzle Sizing.
- Nozzle sizing tips and visualization modified.
2.0 All files R20160605
- Modify Surge/Holdup calculation
- Adding User input option for K factor.
- Modify Boot weight calculation on 3pHb & 3pHb_s

References:
1. Wayne D. Monnery and William Y. Svrcek. "Design Two-Phase Separators Within The Right Limits”;
University of Calgary; October 1993. Chemical Engineering Progress (CEP).

2. Wayne D. Monnery and William Y. Svrcek. "Successfully Specify Three-Phase Separators”; University of
Calgary; September 1994. Chemical Engineering Progress(CEP).

3. Eugene F. Megyesy. "Pressure Vessel Handbook", 10th Edition, University of Tulsa, 1997.

4. Stanley M. Walas, "Chemical Process Equipment Selection and Design", University of Kansas, 1990.

5. "Process Engineering Design Manual", TOTAL, 1985.

Note: There are some typos in the referenced articles. We have provided a marked /
corrected files. You can download them from the website.
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A Sample Case:
A mixture of petroleum feed flows at 146.2 Pisa and 63 oC and should pre-separate for further
treating.
So we desired to use a drum to reach this propose. The downstream operation condition does not
let us to have more liquid droplets in vapor phase.
Feed properties are as the below table. 10% oversize in nozzles shall be considered. All fluids are
non-corrosive.
The products will be fed to another drum with pump.
Assume a SA-515_60 alloy for the material with examined joints.

Flow Rate (kg/hr) Density (kg/m3) Viscosity (cp)

Vapor phase 7,000 10.3 -


Light Liquid (HC) 37,650 400.0 0.7
Heavy Liquid (Water) 4,510 1,020.0 0.5
Particle sizes:
Heavy liquid in the light liquid = 89 micron.
Light liquid in the heavy liquid = 127 micron.
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Fluids properties input page:


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Additional Customization Options:


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Output:

Before Optimization
(Based on Initial guess)
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Detailed Steps. Pg. 1 of 2.


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Detailed Steps. Pg 2 of 2.
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Finalization:

After optimization, you can round dimensions manually. (Automatically round mode is not
considered yet.)
For this case, we first set D to 2100mm and then tried to round L with changing the Hv/D.
In this step, consider the valid range for Hv/D. The result is as below:

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